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Humble Beginnings

The Team’s first post was a brick garage that was part of a private house in Drymen. Though convenient for rescues, it was limited for space as it was used by the community council for storing unused newspapers for collection. This meant that every month the team's vehicle and equipment had to fight for space with mounting piles of newspapers. Eventually, the fight for space was lost and in the late 1970's the Team was forced to find an alternative home.

The Lock Up

The best premises available at the time was a local authority owned lock up garage in Balfron. This was unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons; limited space for storage, no heating or running water. It also meant a significant detour to uplift vehicles on a rescue.The Team made the best of this arrangement for over 25 years. When The Order of St. John indicated they would consider requests from Scottish MRTs to fund new bases for teams in need, the Team jumped at the opportunity.

The New Headquarters

On 27th July 2005, the Team’s new post was officially opened by HRH, The Duke of Gloucester. Over 110 people attended the event including representatives of The Order of St. John, Scottish Executive, Central Scotland Police, Fire Brigade, the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre, Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland, adjacent MRTs, Underwater Diving Unit, SARDA, Stirling Council and the Scottish Ambulance Service. Many former team members and other supporters also attended along with the SAR flight from Royal Navy Gannet. The event received wide coverage on TV, radio and in the Press.

The building has been designed as a bespoke rescue base to suit the particular needs of the Lomond MRT. It is located in a position central to the Team’s operation in the new National Park making it easy to uplift equipment and vehicles in the event of a call out. There is good ‘line of sight’ with Ben Lomond and Conic Hill. The building is a single story structure, containing a meeting room, kitchen, toilets, shower, garage, equipment storage rooms, drying room and office. The garage area has a loft extension which can be used for additional storage or small-group meetings. The north facing wall extends to over 25 feet and an internal climbing/technical wall is planned for the near future. Parking space is available for 19 vehicles.


The Team is delighted to have returned to the village where it first began. The central location will also help to speed up response times to call-outs and also greatly facilitate the training programme. Gone are the days when training took place in a small, cold room in the local Church Hall! The new base provides much more space as well as access to the Team’s equipment and adjacent outdoor areas for relevant training.